Spain-Based Startups Advance Regional Innovation With Barcelona Supercomputing Center

The Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC) has launched its AI Factory Accelerator Programme, offering startups sovereign compute, technical support, and training to drive innovation across industries. The initiative, now fully operational after a pilot phase, includes access to services through the NVIDIA Inception portal, which provides additional resources such as training, mentoring, and venture capital connections. The programme complements BSC’s public infrastructure, MareNostrum 5, which is set to expand supercomputing access across Europe’s AI Factories.

Three startups from the NVIDIA Inception program were recognized as AI Champions during the pilot initiative’s demo day. Qatium’s water-network platform, used by over 250 utilities in 16 countries, is now in early production with its Neural Water Intelligence technology, which relies on proprietary AI models trained on MareNostrum 5 and NVIDIA accelerated computing tools.

OneCareAI, a research spin-off from BSC, developed technology using NVIDIA NIM microservices to detect hidden atrial fibrillation in normal ECGs, helping clinicians identify patients at risk of stroke before symptoms appear. Avatia created a voice-first, multi-agent system for pharmaceutical companies, leveraging NVIDIA NIM microservices, Nemotron 3 models, and NeMo Curator to provide doctors with curated medical information and support sales teams.

The BSC AI Factory Accelerator Programme includes startups like Agrikola AI, Elna Health, and Lokutor, which are advancing precision agriculture, medical imaging, and speech services. Other participants, such as Oppy and Pack2Earth, focus on enterprise security and sustainable packaging, reflecting the programme’s diverse impact across sectors like healthcare, agriculture, and environmental sustainability.